Bill Evans Painting as publlic radio Jazz station logo

It's now official, I am honored to announce my painting "Submerged (Bill Evans)" was chosen by jazz89 KUVO Public Radio Denver as the stations design throughout 2009!

Which means the image will be used as the station's logo on everything representing it, including station T-Shirts, Letterhead, business cards, website, newsletter, wine bottles, advertising ads, and all produced KUVO related marketing materials throughout 2009!
KUVO is a 22 year old public radio station which is affiliated with NPR, has won many awards, among them the 2005 and 2006 Major Market Jazz Station of the Year! It is supported by donations, and the image of the painting will be distributed as part of the 'Thank You" gift the station gives to donors, either in the form of t-shirts, wine bottles or any other publication!
Although I live nowhere near the Denver, Colorado area, I've been enjoying listening to the station via the live web streaming on the station's website, I highly recommend listening to it if you like and enjoy Jazz and blues! Thank you, KUVO, for choosing my painting and for bringing this excellent music to the airwaves!

Happy 100th Birthday Elliot Carter

Being quite removed from the music world in the past years, I ran into a Charlie Rose interview with wonderful classical composer Elliot Carter last night, on the occasion of his 100th birthday and a celebration concert in his honor tonight at Carnegie Hall. Elliot carter is considered America's leading composer, he has contributed enormously to the world of music both as a musician and as an advocate of music education. As he mentions in a BBC interview: "...It was my generation actually that started the idea of having music taught - composition taught, not only in conservatories but also in universities in the United States . We started out maybe with 30 or 40 composers at most in America . Now we have 20,000 - all as a result of my unfortunate efforts."

Watching the interview was a pleasure not only because of Carter's enlightening presence and radiance of youth, joy and wisdom at his advanced age, it was also very enlightening to me as an artist and former musician. His words helped me define many of the things that I intuitively sensed but wasn't able to pinpoint. In a way, it helped me connect the dots and come to realize why I feel the way I do about my art. Being a former musician, I sometimes feel I am 'painting music' or 'playing a painting' or 'composing art'... for me, the experience of creating art is very similar to creating the art of music. It is a non verbal language which expresses our human condition in a way that can transform and transcend, in a way that can be interpreted with words but not expressed by them. Music and art, for me, use the mind as a tool, not the other way around. Music that is great is not created by the brain, but the composer is using the brain to transfer sound into notes, or into the instrument. The same is true, in my opinion, in regards to great art, the visual experience comes from a vision of the soul, not from an intellectual thought or mind manipulations.
I am trying to explain this experience with words now, and it is not easy to do. To make it easy the best analogy would be of course love. One can certainly use the brain to induce the feeling, but not to create it. We have to find it within ourselves in order to feel it.

You can watch the Charlie Rose interview with Elliot Carter, Daniel Barenboim and James Levine, and here is another interview with Elliot Carter, wishing him a hundred more creative and inspiring years!